KEY POINTS:
Bar Lourinha
Herald rating: * * * * 1/2
MoVida
Herald rating: * * * * 1/2
Dish of the Year apparently and rave recommended. My vegetarian dining companion quailed at the thought but I couldn't pass up the challenge of the Cecina. That's wafer thin slices of rare Wagyu beef bresaola, truffle foam and soft poached egg to you - and culinary delight according to the Good Food Guide, Melbourne fan and Auckland designer Kate Sylvester, and, yes, now me.
The idea seemed a bit unappetising, but too interesting to bypass. The taste test: a wonderful melding of flavours. The Vegetarian was a bit nonplussed but I'd stomached my share of tofu elsewhere and the allure of reputation and red meat was too strong. MoVida is that kind of place, cut out for adventurous appetites. We managed to over-order, despite well-schooled advice, but when the smells and descriptions are so tempting, why not?
It's not every day you get tapas to write home about, but we managed it twice in a row. From dinner at MoVida Bar de tapas y vino, to lunch at Bar Lourinha, we sampled some of the finest small portions you'd hope to share. We also enjoyed a quiet education in what Spanish cuisine has to offer and thank goodness that's a lot more than the often greasy grub served up here and in countless tavernas.
MoVida's Frank Camorra champions the country of his birth. His Spanish fare is full-bodied and hearty, but owes as much to his New World inventiveness as to tradition. Scallop and jamon are topped with potato foam, garfish fillets come cured with citrus and with green bean salpicon, and Tasmanian clams are served on braised pasta.
Bar Lourinha's Matt McConnell is a more recent convert to the cuisines of Spain and Portugal. A trip there with his partner, Jo Gamvros, crystallised the young chef's idea of opening a Mediterranean-inspired place with "the wonderful atmosphere of eating at a bar or on communal tables". He says his menu isn't specifically Spanish or tapas, but the idea is to create an environment where plates - and good times - are shared.
As at MoVida, most of the dishes are more correctly called raciones, designed to be shared between two to three people or banquet style for a larger group; rather than tapas which are a nibble to accompany a drink. Each eatery does though serve a small range of tapas: Bar Lourinha has individual oysters and, like MoVida, offers quail.
MoVida tapas include an anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet, roast lamb cutlet encased in Catalan port and paprika pate, and hickory smoked baby peppers filled with blue-swimmer crab and potato confit.
The bigger racion seems to encourage yet more variety in ingredients and cooking styles. At Bar Lourinha businessmen tucked into blood sausage sizzled at the table and grilled lambs tongue and skordalia. I spotted Wagyu beef (again rare, this with shaved horseradish) and was tempted to compare to the Cecina, but in deference to the Vegetarian we instead sized up the spinach dishes.
Bar Lourinha's was delicate and lemony, with chickpeas. The similar sounding MoVida version, Espinacas con Garbanzos, was more earthy, spicy and filling. Bread and olives at each place were first-rate, the olives came smoked at MoVida and ladled from a giant jar at Bar Lourinha.
At the latter we had roast cauliflower with pistachio and queso de cabra (a cheese they happily served to the side). Also a salad of shaved artichoke, green chilli and feta. It was as light as the spare white dining room.
At MoVida, with its cosy, buzzy basement where kitchen smells waft, there was marinated roast capsicum and tomato salad in Moorish spices and oven-roasted portobello mushrooms finished with sherry vinegar.
Maybe it was something in the air, but I was tempted by the sherry, a drink I've had little of since my grandmother used to splash a few drops in my lemonade.
Some things don't change, though mercifully it wasn't sickly Corbans but instead a fine Amontillado.
While I felt that familiar warming feeling, someone else managed to fit in the Flan con pestinos, a creme caramel with spiced sherry pastries ($10) which was declared divine.
The food deities certainly smiled on us. So here's to eating little and often.
Bar Lourinha
Address: 37 Little Collins St, Melbourne.
Phone: 00613 9663-7890
Cuisine: Modern Mediterranean
From the menu: Grilled quail and salsa agrodolce $9; vine-grilled sardines and fennel salad $13; spiced rabbit empanadillas $14; pomegranate & blood orange crema $10
Vegetarian: Enough for seconds
Wine: Tightly edited list of mainly European, especially Spanish wines.
MoVida
Address: 1 Hosier Lane, off Flinders St, between Swanston and Russell Sts, Melbourne.
Phone: 00613 9663-3038
Cuisine: Spanish
Hours: 7 days a week. Noon to late.
From the menu: Manchego sheeps cheese with quince paste $2.80; black pudding, thickened with rice and spices, served grilled $12; smoked salmon with cream fraiche and pine-nut gazpacho icecream $16; hot chocolate ganache pudding with vanilla bean icecream and nougat $12.50.
Vegetarian: Will be replete, but may look askance at meatier offerings.
Wine: Extensive selection from Spain, Australia and New Zealand by bottle and glass. Spanish-skewed for reds. Sherries also.
